Originally Posted by
rickair7777
What he said.
Look up the NTSB rules and figure out exactly who is RESPONSIBLE for reporting this. If it's the pilot, you need to determine the exact scope of the damages and whether it will meet the reporting threshold. Sounds like it's on the borderline, you may need to err on the conservative side and just report it.
There's nothing that prevents the owner from reporting the incident if he wants to...whether any action is taken depends on the actual damages, which may not be known until the repairs are complete.
It's not worth 20K out of your own pocket because this is almost insignificant at the PPL level and you don't want to lie to airlines anyway.
Good advise here. I do disagree that this is an insignificant event however. You will need to treat this as a serious mistake during an interview and be fully prepared to explain what happened and how you learned from it. Also you will need to be squeaky clean from here on out, add a busted check ride to your resume you will have a difficult time finding employment.
Not the end of the world but less than ideal. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.